BioWare Announces that Anthem is Now in Alpha Testing

BioWare’s upcoming multiplayer action RPG, Anthem, has officially entered Alpha testing, according to a post from studio general manager Casey Hudson. The game, featuring humans suited up in power armor and defending their enclave from aliens, is on track to release early next year. Hudson confirmed in the post that as of last week, “every part of the game is in, and functioning.”

During the announcement, Hudson compared the process of making Anthem to that of the critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate back in 1998. When he first joined BioWare, Hudson was given the task of testing Baldur’s Gate‘s multiplayer feature. Now, the “energy around the office” is reminiscent of the way it was then. “The team is starting to get a sense of the magic they’ve created together and there’s a growing excitement about finally releasing it into the world,” Hudson wrote. “BioWare games have always been about capturing a shared experience – whether through a party of fictional characters or other players – and somehow the idea of players being immersed together in the universe of Anthem makes the setting seem even more real.”

According to BioWare’s announcement, Anthem will now be going through a process of fine-tuning and polish. “Now that all the important pieces are in the game, we can move almost entirely to bug-fixing, testing, and tuning – which will be an incredible amount of work on a game this big,” Hudson continued. “We have some really ambitious plans for launch and beyond, and we really want to get it right.”

Beyond that, Hudson promised that more news would be coming soon about when players will be able to try out Anthem for themselves. BioWare previously stated that it expected a demo to be ready February 1, arriving for EA/Origin Access subscribers on the Xbox One and PC simultaneously.

Anthem will release on February 22, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.